Microsoft and Inmarsat announced they will collaborate to allow customers of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform to use Inmarsat's global satellite network to access internet of things data collected in remote locations.

The partnership, announced this week at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress, also enables customers of the British satellite system to send IoT data from remote locations to Azure's datacenter for analysis.

The deal follows industry trends to establish more computing power and intelligence at the network edge.

Initially, businesses in the agriculture, mining, transport and logistics sectors will be able to use their internet of things (IoT) devices to monitor global supply chains, gaining improved visibility on themselves and better access to markets and customers, Inmarsat said.

The customers will be given access to a range of internet-based tools enabling anything to connect with anything, linking physical assets with digital ones, regardless of how remotely they are located.

Inmarsat owns and operates 13 satellites in stationary Earth orbit more than 22,000 miles above the surface. The satellites support global maritime and aviation safety data, broadband, and European inflight Wi-Fi services.

Inmarsat maintains it is the world’s most reliable “L-band” satellite network, with 99.9% availability for businesses-critical IoT applications. With rugged and energy-efficient terminals and low latency data transmission, the company claims it offers the ideal connectivity service to support monitoring applications in remote and hostile environments.

“This collaboration with Microsoft Azure is central to our Industrial IoT strategy," Tara MacLachlan, an Inmarsat vice-president says, "and will enable our customers to access the data generated and processed by our intelligent edge IoT solutions, regardless of where their infrastructure is located.”

Analyzing the data and using it to optimize operations stands at the core of IoT’s value, she says, and the applications that Microsoft will deliver via Azure and IoT cloud solutions are critical to the mission.

“Our relationship with Microsoft Azure," says Paul Gudonis, president of Inmarsat Enterprise," will provide customers with the reliable global connectivity and cloud services they need to take advantage of the Internet of Things wherever they are."

Microsoft says it has one of the fastest-growing IoT partner ecosystems, including 10,000 partners developing intelligent edge to intelligent cloud and 1,500 IoT solutions built by partners.

A Microsoft executive, Sam George, says Microsoft Azure is being built as the 'world’s computer.'

Azure is "extending the reach of our cloud through IoT and intelligent edge services. Our goal is to enable customers to take advantage of connected IoT solutions no matter where they are in their journey. With Inmarsat, customers across industries from agriculture to mining and logistics sectors, will benefit from the power of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge with global satellite connectivity in the most remote parts of the globe.”

Gartner researchers predict that the number of connected devices will reach 14.2 billion this year and grow to 25 billion by 2021. Other estimates place the total at 1 trillion by 2035.

Other announcements at the Barcelona conference:

Arm, the British chip designer, says it's teaming up with independent test laboratories to certify security for IoT devices. Following the Mirai malware attack in 2016, in which networked devices running Linux were used as botnets, security flaws in IoT devices became painfully evident. Arm's response is new certification testing for Arm-based devices that use its Platform Security Architecture framework. "This will enable trust in individual devices, in their data, and in the deployment of these devices at scale in IoT services," says Paul Williamson, an Arm vice-president, "as we drive towards a world of a trillion connected devices.”

SAP, the German software giant, says it has made enhancements to its SAP Leonardo IoT offering, as well as cloud-to-cloud interoperability with Microsoft’s Azure. Microsoft says the resulting solution will simplify the collection and absorption of data, streaming it into familiar business applications, such as SAP S/4HANA, that can act on it. In addition, SAP enterprise customers soon will run SAP Leonardo IoT Edge Business Essential Functions on the secure Azure IoT Edge platform installed on enterprise-ready certified devices. “This will enable customers to seamlessly extend their SAP enterprise business processes to the edge," says Microsoft's George.

Microsoft’s IoT-partner showcases include a system to increase individual well-being, personal productivity and organizational effectiveness in the workplace; smart diabetic footwear; and an autonomous pallet drone that can identify safety risks using AI-enabled cameras and process data at the edge.

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Simon at VitalBriefing is a journalist, editor and writer with vast experience covering subjects across a wide range of industries and has worked regularly for top global news organizations including Reuters and the Financial Times. Specializing in corporate communications and the financial sector - especially fintech - Simon is an expert on a variety of business technologies, such as data storage and flash storage, VoIP, mobility, network and edge computing, and the cloud.